Former Rye Golf Club manager Scott Yandrasevich was arraigned May 9 in Westchester County Court on an 11 count indictment, including Class C Felony charges.
By Tom McDermott
Former Rye Golf Club manager Scott Yandrasevich was arraigned May 9 in Westchester County Court on an 11 count indictment, including Class C Felony charges. If found guilty, the defendant faces a state prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Yandrasevich plead not guilty through his attorney Kerry Lawrence after Kevin Conway of the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Bureau read the charges before Judge Susan Cacace,
Conway followed the defendant’s plea with a request that Cacace increase bail to $100,000 from the $10,000 previously set by Judge Latwin in Rye City Court. Conway stated that Yandrasevich was a flight risk, since the scope of the indictment was wider than the original grand larceny charges.
Conway told the judge that Yandrasevich had concocted a scheme that from September 2006 through August 2012 bilked the club of $342,120, $71,000 more than the originally charged. He claimed that as manager, Yandrasevich used shell companies, including Studio Y and RM Staffing to create bogus pay vouchers for fictitious workers.
He said that the defendant could not be trusted to show up in court, noting that he had not been truthful in court in 2012, when he claimed to have received only $1,000 in consulting fees from Studio Y.
Lawrence countered that his client had appeared in County and Rye City courtrooms on several occasions, and that he had appeared at a meeting with Mr. Conway. Lawrence said that Yandrasevich and his wife are currently struggling with financial difficulties, and that if bail were increased to such an inappropriate amount, it would result in his client’s incarceration for months during the legal process.
Cacace quickly upheld the $10,000 bail. She then reminded the defendant that the case would proceed May 21 with a preliminary conference and set August 6 for a Determination of Readiness for trial, saying and that a warrant would be issued for his arrest if he did not appear when required.
Rye’s own investigation into the Rye Golf Club matter, for which they paid nearly $300,000 to the law firm Brune & Richard, stated that Yandrasevich had stolen “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” A subsequent insurance claim made by Rye in August 2013, pegged the loss at $2.1 million.
According to DA spokesman Lucien Chalfen, the $342,120 could change again before a trial begins.
